240 NATURE'S DREAMS 



familiar haunts among the now disconsolate and 

 naked trees. 



A hesitating, discontented, but familiar chirp 

 comes from a closely-crowded bunch of Cedars half 

 way up the hillside. But a long and patient wait 

 does not induce the friend of summer to reveal him- 

 self. The Cedars must be slowly and steadily circled 

 so as not to disturb him. An opening appears above 

 a low-spreading branch, and there, with bunched 

 and huddled form outlined against the background 

 of snow, sits a solitary Robin who has preferred the 

 cold of the dense Evergreens to the gay surroundings 

 of the hospitable south. He will be of the first to 

 greet the returning spring. Both in sombre colour 

 and quiet demeanour he contrasts with the lively, 

 energetic, and sometimes noisy Blue Jay that has 

 flown out of the deeper woods. This gay disturber 

 is pulling energetically at a belated acorn that has 

 remained, like the bunches of last year's leaves, on a 

 lofty branch of the white Oak. Although distressingly 

 industrious, and even vain of it, the Jay is easily 

 forgiven. When he stays through the winter he makes 

 the best of the situation and takes the white world as 

 he finds it, never sulking, grumbling, nor assuming 

 an air of dejection. He never huddles together in his 

 feathers to wait for summer, but lives his life day by 

 day, taking all the joy there is and shedding it about 

 indifferent to all seasons. He is the mischievous child 



